Oil and gas drilling and production operations often require the use of long strings of pipe or tubing. Such pipe strings are sometimes called tubing strings and the strings of tubing are typically comprised of individual segments of pipe or tubing that are secured together to form the strings. These individual segments or pipe are called pipe joints or tubing joints.
During such drilling and production operations, individual pipe joints may be added or removed from a pipe string. These individual pipe joints are typically at least thirty feet in length and are extremely heavy. Consequently, a pipe lifting apparatus is typically utilized for lifting the heavy joints of pipe.